


A Spirited Agreement

by BarPurple



Series: Halloween House of Horror 2018 [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, ghost!belle - Freeform, ghost!rumple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 13:37:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16198601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple
Summary: Belle had always wanted to further her education. She never expected to be able to do so, but after her death she found the opportunity.





	A Spirited Agreement

General Certificate of Ghost Training

Individual Candidate Statement of Results

Centre Name and Number: 0815, Storybrooke

Candidate Number: 2122012

Date of Death: 04/10/1918

Candidate Name (Post-Life): Belle

Syllabus Number, Title and Result

1001 – Chills and Flesh Creep – A

1011 – Screaming and Moaning – A

1111 – Whispering (Advanced) – B

1015 – Odours (Flowers) – A

1019 – Object Levitation – A

1025 – Mortal Communication – A

1031 – Physical Manifestation – A

1037 – Possession - F

 

Belle sighed at her GCGT results. She’d taken the Possession course three times now and had finally managed to scrap the lowest acceptable grade. She just could hold the focus required to keep herself in control of the subject. There was too much to get distracted by being in a living body again after so long. The rapid beat of a heart was enough to distract her to the point of ejection.

She shook her hair out of her face and sat up straighter. Her other results were great, and after a century of study she was finally ready for her first full time haunting. Discovering that the afterlife placed a great value on study had come as a surprise. The larger surprise was that her gender did not restrict her options, death truly was the great leveller.

“Belle?”

A cloud of cigarette smoke announced the arrival of her mentor, Juno.

“Sorry for the wait. New arrivals driving me crazy.”

Belle smiled as she followed Juno into her office. Dying could come as quite the shock and everyone reacted to their sudden vital change in different ways. She’d been spitting mad and used language that would have shocked her father. She shook her head as she recalled how she had focused on her desire to slap Gaston for staining her dress, it had taken her an hour to realise that she was dead, and a bloody dress was the least of her concerns.

Juno sat behind her cluttered desk and blew out smoke rings as she hunted for Belle’s file.

“Ah, here we go. Congratulations, these are very impressive results.”

“Thank you, shame about the possession one.”

Juno waved a dismissive hand; “Nonsense. Possession isn’t everything. I sometimes question the sense of teaching it at all.”

Belle didn’t say anything, everyone knew why, or rather who, had turned Juno against possession. It was best not to bring up that name.

Juno took a long drag on her ever-present cigarette; “Okay, have you read your assignment file?”

“I have, it’s an interesting place.”

Burworth Grange had been built as a hunting lodge in the 1880. During the Great War it had served as a convalescence home for wounded soldiers. A member of the family who own the estate had lived there during the inter-war years, but it returned to a medical facility in 1940. In the late 1950’s the house and grounds had been gifted to the village and was now used as a community centre.

“Have you given any thought to how you will haunt the place?”

Every newly qualified ghost was given the chance to reinvent themselves. Many chose something close to the person they had been in life, or something heavily influenced by their manner of death. If Belle chose the latter she would style herself as a corpse bride. It was tempting, but she was loath to give Gaston that much influence in her afterlife.

“I’m going to go with Great War nurse, it’s a role I know.”

Juno gave her a rare smile; “Good, good sensible to start with the familiar. Play to your strengths, and remember you are limited to three full manifestations per year for the first decade.”

Belle stood and offered her hand across the desk; “Thank you Juno.”

Juno sook her hand; “Scare them stiff Belle.”

Just as Belle reached the door Juno said; “Just so you know there is a ghost in the grounds. He restyled himself as an Imp a few centuries back. He’s an odd sort, keeps to himself, you probably won’t see much of him.”

Belle hoped her confusion didn’t show on her face. There had been nothing in her assignment file about another ghost at the Grange.

“What’s his name?”

“Rumplestiltskin.”

 

Belle’s first month in Burrworth Grange had been uneventful. She wanted to get use to the rhythm of the building before she set to haunting, there would be no point wasting one of her manifestations if there was no one around to see it.

She had caught glimpses of her fellow ghost. He had truly embraced the persona of Imp. Rumplestiltskin’s skin sparkled and made his reptilian eyes all the more off putting. His high-pitched giggles could be mistaken for birds, as long as you’d never heard a bird before. They had not yet spoken to each other, but he’d given her a ridiculously foppish bow when their eyes had met the first time through a window. It would have been nice to have someone to talk to, but Belle was going to impose her company where it was clearly unwanted.

Besides she had plenty to keep her occupied.

Nobody stayed in the house overnight, so she was going to have to go with daytime creeps. It was harder to get a fright out of a live person in the daylight, common sense ruled the mind rather than the nerves that came with the dark.

The local secondary school used the high-ceilinged ballroom twice a week for badminton. The PE teacher was a serious no-nonsense woman with no tolerance for ‘foolish flights of fancy’. With an authority figure that didn’t believe in the supernatural Belle was certain she could cause chaos among the more open-minded and impressionable teenagers under her care.

She planned carefully. For the weeks running up to her first big event she worked at minor hauntings. The long narrow corridor that led to the ballroom reeked of lilies. The lights flickered and popped for no reason that the caretaker could discover. A lingering chill filled the corridor and ballroom, that no amount of cussing at the radiators would dispel.

She’d hugged herself with delight when she’d heard two of the staff discussing her efforts.

“I’m telling you it’s the ghost.”

“Don’t be daft…”

Belle drifted unseen and unfelt behind them. She was making an impact. Wonderful.

“…the Gremlin doesn’t do flowers. It’s always the sheep stink from him.”

Belle frowned. The Gremlin? Oh, they must mean Rumplestiltskin. It stung a little that the live ones were crediting her work to the Imp, but they hadn’t seen her yet, so it was only a temporary mistake.

“Maybe he fancied a change? Or we’ve got a new ghost?”

“Wonder if this one’s got a sweet tooth too.”

Belle let them wander away, still bickering about if it was the Gremlin who stole the biscuits or not. She chewed on her thumbnail as she considered the situation. Rumplestiltskin was an old ghost. If the live ones thought that her tricks were his then she was doing something right. After tomorrow’s manifestation they would know that there was a new ghost in the house. It would still take time to build up her legend, but she was in no hurry.

The day of her manifestation dawned foggy and grey. She couldn’t have asked for better weather. Invisible she walked the route she was planning to take; a simple stroll along the corridor, and into the ballroom as if she was checking on patients in beds. As long as she got her timing right she would be seen by several lone individuals. The hodgepodge of alterations that had been made to the Grange over the years would help keep her out of sight of groups. She didn’t want a mass sighting just yet.

The grumbling of a sluggish class reached her ears. The PE teacher was already snappish as she chided them to hurry. Belle schooled her feature into the stern look she had copied from the ward sister she used to work under. The front door opened an blew in a swirl of fog. Belle wasn’t going to miss a perfect opportunity like that, she stepped into the mist and let herself become partially visible.

Two of the girls caught sight of her and gave a shriek. Belle disappeared as the teacher listened to their babbled report. So far so good. The class were spooked and looking around for her. A few muttered that even a ghost wouldn’t get them out of this lesson.

Belle focused on her planned route. The class were straggling out in a reluctant line, they were less keen than usual this morning. A boy caught sight of her in a shadowy doorway, he stopped suddenly and peered into the dark office, but didn’t scream. Undeterred Belle carried on, she had to get to the ballroom before the teacher. Three more children jumped at the shadows she passed through, each catching a glimpse of her. By the time she reached the ballroom, the class were on edge and the teacher was sighing and huffing at their foolishness.

“Come on hurry along! There is not need for this silliness just because it’s a bit foggy!”

The teacher stood at the door of the ballroom and impatiently hurrying the class inside. This was it. Belle let herself become almost solid and walked through the room. The first four children into the room screamed at the sight of her. She quickly turned to face them and made her eyes glow as she raised a finger to her lips to shush them. They screamed again as she vanished from sight.

“What is going on in here!”

Belle floated along to the kitchen which would be empty at thins hour of the day. The high ceilings and long corridors echoed with the near-hysterical babble of children and the irritated voice of the teacher.

“Bravo dearie. I’d begun to think you were never going to get started.”

Belle stopped with a gasp. Rumplestiltskin was lounging in a chair with his feet up on the table top. It was the first time she had seen him so close, in fact the first time she had found him in the house at all. Remembering his dramatic bow, she bobbed a curtsy; “Thank you very much.”

He twirled a hand; “Tis not matter dearie. Nice to finally have someone who knows their stuff here.”

He cocked his head to one side and peered at her, then rapidly pulled his booted feet from the table and leaned forward on his elbows.

“How would you feel about working together from time to time?”

There was nothing to stop them collaborating, but Belle had thought he would never want to because of his aloof nature. Perhaps he’d just been waiting to see how good she was before he made an offer. She smoothed down her uniform and settled herself in the chair opposite him.

“What do you have in mind?”

 

In recent years Burrworth Grange has become known to ghost hunters as one of the most haunted places in the north of England. The varied sightings are often dismissed as pranks and fakes, but many collaborating accounts have sparked new interest in the history of this building.

\- Ghosts of the North.


End file.
